Airservices Australia has said that it will not raise airways charges for the planned future, according to the service provider's 2018-19 Corporate Plan, which was released to the public last Monday.
Airservices has not increased airways charges since July 2015, which CEO Jason Harfield said translates into an effective reduction in charges.
"Our prices will remain steady at 2015 levels through the life of the plan," he said. "This is a 17% price decrease in real terms, while delivering an investment program to significantly improve value for all airspace users.”
Airservices attributes the ability to hold prices to a more efficient operating cost base created from the Accelerate program that made many changes to how the provider operates. The current revenue is thought to have been sufficient to cover all "reasonably incurred costs" including a return on capital.
The Corporate Plan is forecasting an income from airways charges of $1.1 billion for the 2018-19 financial year, which is an increase of 2.5% over the forecast for 2017-18.
Airservices says the higher revenue is due to a forecast increase in traffic, not in charges.
The plan lays out the full range of activity and investments Airservices will undertake in the coming years, showing a priority on the OneSKY program to harmonise civil and military air traffic management, digital aerodrome technology, Airport Collaborative Decision Making and Long Range Air Traffic Flow Management; as well as communications, navigation and surveillance facilities to support industry expansion and infrastructure investment.
The 2018-19 Corporate Plan is available on the Airservices website.